Pettis hurt his knee, Korean Zombie will now face Jose Aldo for the title on the Aug card in Rio Brazil

Bummer, hopefully Pettis still gets a shot. I know Aldo wants to move up and challenge for the LW title too, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Not counting TKZ out but think Aldo should win.

Bummer, hopefully Pettis still gets a shot. I know Aldo wants to move up and challenge for the LW title too, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Not counting TKZ out but think Aldo should win.

IMO, Pettis never should have dropped to FW & certainly shouldn't have been given a title shot there. He earned a shot at LW, so either take they shot there or else drop & go to the back of the line.

A knee injury has forced Anthony Pettis out of his UFC 163 title shot against featherweight champion Jose Aldo Jr. Popular Chan Sung Jung will take his place at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 3.

UFC president Dana White tweeted the news on Friday. Pettis then tweeted about his injury, calling it a "small tear in my meniscus."

Pettis (16-2), the former WEC lightweight champion, jumped the line at featherweight by texting White after Aldo's UFC 156 victory over Frankie Edgar and receiving the shot.

The knee injury continues a string of bad luck for Pettis, who is the only man with a Zuffa victory over current lightweight champ Ben Henderson. Pettis was expected to get a shot at then-champion Edgar, but had to wait when Edgar went to a draw with Gray Maynard on New Year's Day 2011, which necessitated a rematch. In the interim, Pettis lost to Clay Guida, which shoved him back in the pecking order. Pettis rebounded with three straight wins, but after getting sick of waiting, issued the challenge to Aldo instead.

Jung (13-3), meanwhile, has been a fan favorite since losing a heartbreaking spilt decision to Leonard Garcia in one of the most memorable brawls in MMA history at WEC 48, a bout widely regarded as the 2010 Fight of the Year. Since then, he's evolved from simply a popular name on the card into a legit title contender, with wins over Garcia, Mark Hominick, and Dustin Poirier in his past three fights, the latter of which was MMAFighting.com's 2012 Fight of the Year. Shoulder surgery sidelined Jung after the Poirier fight.

Aldo (22-1) has won 15 consecutive fights and has held the WEC/UFC title since Nov. 2009.

The good news for Pettis is he will not require surgery, however, Roufus said another one of his fighters, Erik Koch, suffered a similar knee injury last year and he needed more than four-to-six weeks to get healthy.

"He's very distraught," Roufus said. "Anthony is a very resilient man. He just wants to regroup right now. What can you do? You can dwell on the negative or figure out a way to past this and get better."

Roufus said Pettis "begged" White to keep him on the card. He tried to convince his coach that he only needed three serious weeks to train for the fight, but the UFC didn't want to take that risk, for Pettis' sake.

"[The UFC] said, 'No, you got to be healthy,'" Roufus said. "I'm glad they're looking out for his best interests, too."

Pettis wrote on Twitter, "Injuries are part of the sport. Small tear in my meniscus. I was so ready for this fight, this won't stop me! Be back soon."

Unfortunately for Pettis, this scenario is all too familiar. He was promised a title shot after beating Benson Henderson in the final WEC fight in 2010 but then saw that opportunity slip away when then-champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard fought to a draw, and Pettis lost to Clay Guida while waiting for Edgar and Maynard to finish their trilogy. He then thought he was going to get a title shot after knocking out Joe Lauzon in spectacular fashion at UFC 144, but that didn't happen either.

So after Pettis defeated Donald Cerrone in January, he took what he thought was a sure bet: a title fight at 145 pounds against Aldo.

Turns out, it wasn't a sure bet after all.

When asked whether this means Pettis will return to lightweight, Roufus said, "it's all in Dana's hands and the UFC," but Roufus explained that the drop to featherweight was always more about the challenge of fighting Aldo than finding a new home at 145 pounds.

"I don't think he wanted to be a permanent featherweight," Roufus said. "He wanted to fight Aldo but lightweight is his division. I'm not sure what's going to happen."

Coincidentally, Henderson's next title defense is taking place in Pettis' hometown of Milwaukee on Aug. 31 against T.J. Grant, and Roufus, while saying he thinks Grant deserves a title shot, is holding out hope he'll see the Pettis vs. Henderson in the near future.